There is no secret that modern students use a plethora of gadgets and tools to make their studies and lives in general easier. But there is one tool that is often being underestimated by young people – it is Microsoft Excel. Although it has been around for ages, modern students do not fully recognize the huge value of this tool for their academics.
Excel can come in handy for a variety of purposes and at any point in your student career. It is great for organizing, planning, and storing data, managing tasks, projects, etc. All in all, Excel is a dream tool. You just need to know how to use it right. So, in this article, we are going to give you the top seven hacks that will help you make the most of it.
Conditional Formatting
Conditional Formatting is probably the best set of Excel features for a student.
We all know that college people deal with hundreds of assignments, essays, tests, and other projects. Keeping track of them all, as well as deadlines for each, is no easy task. And, though students can always pay for paper at WritePaper to get their tasks done faster and stress-free, they still need to keep track of due dates. And that’s where Conditional Formatting comes in handy.
Basically, this set of features is there to let users manage the formatting of their charts under different circumstances. For example, one of the best ways to use this is to set up your “deadline” fields to turn red if the date has expired. This can help you track your assignments’ due dates and ensure you never miss another deadline.
Apart from changing the color of fields, Conditional Formatting has a whole range of other possibilities. Look at the Home tab and choose the Conditional Formatting drop-down menu to see what else is there for you.
Filters
When it comes to large charts, viewing them even on a big gadget can be pretty inconvenient. If you change the scale, you might find your data completely impossible to read, and if you don’t, you can waste too much time seeking out information that you need. But there is a solution. With the help of Excel Filters, you can reduce the amount of information you see on a screen and view only relevant data.
To use this hack, first, select the specific column that you want your filters to apply to. Then, using the Filter feature, you can choose what kind of data you want to see within the selected column. This simple trick can save you plenty of time when working with spreadsheets.
Autofill
When creating your own charts, it can be pretty time-consuming to insert numbers. But there is a handy trick that can assist you with this. Though not many know this, Excel has an extremely smart Autofill feature.
How does it work? It’s pretty intuitive. The tool will automatically recognize if there are any specific patterns in your numbers, for example, if they go in a subsequent order. Then, all you need to do is to write the first two numbers and select them and the following fields until you generate the needed amount of entries. And that’s pretty much it.
Add Multiple Columns or Rows at Once
The next Excel hack every student needs to know about is how to insert multiple rows and columns into existing spreadsheets in a few simple clicks. As you may already know, this tool enables you to insert a highlighted row into a new spreadsheet. To do this, you just need to highlight and copy it.
But if you want to insert several rows or columns at once, you need to use your shift key and the side or top bars to select multiple rows and click the Insert button. By doing this, you will automatically insert the same number of rows or columns that you’ve highlighted. And this can also save you lots of time.
Get Rid of Duplicate Data
Duplicate data might be one of the largest pains for people who use spreadsheets often. But there is a way to get rid of it quickly and easily.
When you want your charts to be clean and neat, don’t rush to seek out and delete duplicates manually. Instead, select the column that you believe might include duplicate data, then go to the Data tab and click on the Remove Duplicates option.
After you do this, you will see a new window that shows all duplicates that the program has found within the selected chart and will be able to select the information that needs to be removed. This trick really can make your work with Excel more productive, so don’t hesitate to try it.
Freeze Panels
When it comes to large course data sets, these can be extremely troublesome to scroll through and keep track of what you are looking at.
Let’s say you need to remember the headings or descriptions of your columns, but then, when you scroll down to the needed data area, you can lose the upper sections of your charts out of sight. This can be pretty stressful, so here is another hack every student should find helpful – use Freeze Panels for such occasions.
To freeze the specific parts of your spreadsheet, you need to select it, then go to the View tab and click the Freeze Panels option. What happens then? Even if you scroll down to the very bottom of the file, the areas you decided to freeze will stay in place, letting you see them from any part of your chart.
Remove Blank Cells Automatically
Finally, one last Excel hack we have for students will come in handy when you are transferring or merging data from different resources. When doing this, you will often have quite a few blank cells within your spreadsheet. There’s no need to say that deleting them manually is a time-consuming and unnecessary task. Yet, removing blank cells is still crucial for keeping your charts accurate and clean.
Luckily, there is an easy way to do this! Earlier, we’ve already mentioned the Filter tool built into Excel. Now, here is one more way to use it: select a column or row with blank cells, go to the Filter tool from the Home tab, and filter for blanks. After discovering the blank cells, select all of them and delete.
This way, you will ensure that your spreadsheets don’t have any blank cells left in a matter of seconds.
The Bottom Line
There is no doubt that Microsoft Excel is a great tool that can make everyday college projects simpler for students. But let’s face it – not many young people really know how to leverage this tool to their benefit.
Luckily, after reading this article, you’ve already learned about the seven best Excel hacks that can make your work with this tool seamless and productive. And there are many other hacks that can come in handy. So, don’t hesitate to learn them and give them a try to start creating and managing your spreadsheets like a pro!
